President Volodymyr Zelenskyy emphasized in his video address on the 23rd day of the war against the Russian Federation that meaningful peace negotiations are the only chance for Russia to reduce the damage from its own mistakes.
"We always insisted on negotiations and offered solutions for peace. Not only during the 23 days of the invasion. And I want everyone to hear me, including those in Moscow. It's time to meet. Time to talk. It's time to restore territorial integrity and justice for Ukraine. Otherwise, Russia's losses will be so huge that several generations will not be enough to rebound," said Zelenskyy.
The President mentioned that today in Moscow took place a rally and concert to commemorate the annexation of Crimea.
"I call your attention to one detail. They say that 200 thousand people participated in this rally in a stadium (in Moscow - LB). It's the same number that was involved in the invasion of Ukraine. Now imagine that 14 thousand people in this stadium are dead, other tens of thousands are wounded. These are the current losses of Russian personnel in this war. This is the price of war. We must end the war," emphasized Zelenskyy.
Earlier, Zelenskyy said that the priorities of the Ukrainian delegation in negotiations with Russia are putting an end to the war and restoring the territorial integrity of our country.
Today, Putin's press-secretary Peskov claimed that "Kyiv does not show readiness to speed up the negotiations with Moscow."
In reality, Zelenskyy offered the Russian President to seat at the negotiations table immediately after the invasion of Ukraine and repeated the offer multiple times.
On April 20 of last year, Zelenskyy offered Putin to meet anywhere in Ukrainian Donbas. Russian President replied that Zelenskyy must negotiate first with the self-appointed leaders of "DNR" and "LNR" (self-proclaimed breakaway regions of Donetsk and Luhansk). If he wants to speak about Russia-Ukraine relations, he can come to Moscow any time. In October, Peskov said that the bilateral meeting is in the works, but "there is no consensus." At the end of November, Turkish President Recep Erdogan offered to broker the talks between Putin and Zelenskyy. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation declined his offer. It announced that Turkish facilitation of the negotiations between Russia and Ukraine is "out of the question" because Russia does not consider itself a party to "internal Ukrainian conflict."
In his interview with La Repubblica, Zelenskyy suggested that the Vatican could be a suitable place for bilateral negotiations with the Russian President. The Vatican responded with assurances that the Pope would not refuse to host Zelenskyy and Putin.
Ukraine had also asked Israeli prime-minister Benjamin Netanyahu to be the middleman between Putin and Zelenskyy.